ABRI to look into Irian Jaya killing claim

ABRI to look into Irian Jaya killing claim

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) said
yesterday it would look into a claim by an Australian aid
organization that ABRI personnel had killed and arrested
indigenous Irianese protesting against the expansion of a mining
project.

The report was made by the Australian Council for Overseas Aid
(ACFOA).

ABRI chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Soewarno Adiwijoyo said he had
checked on the claim with ABRI's Intelligence Agency, BIA, and
with the Trikora Military Command in Jayapura, the capital city
of Irian Jaya province, but that both had said they had no
information on the alleged killing and torture.

"But we will re-check the claim in the field in the near
future," Soewarno told The Jakarta Post by telephone yesterday.

ACFOA said in a press statement made available to the Post
yesterday that military troops with the aid of security forces of
PT Freeport, a copper and gold mining company operating in
Tembagapura, had killed or "disappeared" 22 civilians and 15
members of the pro-independence West Papuan liberation movement
(OPM) between June 1994 and February this year.

"Others were arbitrarily arrested, beaten, had their houses
burned and gardens destroyed, and were forced to flee into the
jungle," the statement said.

ACFOA said that the actions might been sparked by a series of
protests by local tribal groups over the expansion of Freeport's
operation in the rugged Grasberg mountains in Tembagapura.

The group said it had obtained the information from
eyewitnesses to the events.

Reuter quoted an Australian government official in Canberra
yesterday as saying that the Australian government would be very
concerned if ACFOA's claims proved to be true.

"The report has been referred to the Australian embassy in
Jakarta to follow up urgently," the official quoted Evans as
saying in a letter to ACFOA.

John Milne, a spokesman for the Australian Embassy, confirmed
yesterday that Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans had asked
the embassy to investigate ACFOA's claim, adding that Ambassador
Allan Taylor would make a visit to the province next month.

Freeport's Public Relations Manager Paul Murphy denied the
ACFOA allegations, saying the company's presence in the province
had benefited indigenous people.

"Those who are responsible for security in the company are
military troops and PT Freeport's security guards are not armed
nor given military training," he said.

Murphy said that his company had enjoyed increasingly good
relations with all the indigenous people in the province.

"The company has recruited many local people to be employed at
the company, made a significant contribution to promoting
education among the people, carried out a social development
program for the province and many others things," he said. (rms)